IRVING – The last time they left the field at Texas Stadium, their feet barely touched the artificial turf as they made a joyous and fairly riotous exit. Slightly more than one year ago, the Giants came back from a 13-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Cowboys 17-13, a rousing if not artistic victory that secured the NFC East title.

“That was an unbelievable feeling,” Keith Hamilton recalled earlier this week, breaking into a reminiscent smile.

Almost instantly, Hamilton wiped the smile off his face and the defensive end’s expression turned darker. “When I step out on that field, I’m not going to be thinking about what happened there last year,” he said. “The reality of it is that’s the furthest thing from my mind.”

A year later, the Giants return to the scene of a memorable achievement with no visions of attaining glory. Playoff survival will do just fine. To characterize today’s game as crucial for the Giants (5-6) is accurate but mostly irrelevant. Victory over the Cowboys (3-8) ensures nothing other than the Giants get to stave off resignation for another week. They have put themselves in such a precarious position that one loss will likely be a critical wound and a second will finish off their faint post-season hopes.

Nothing they have done to this point indicates they are capable of any sudden reversal that results in a five-game winning streak. There is no evidence these Giants are qualified and the reason the feat is deemed remotely possible is that they did it last season. In so many ways, though, this season has been devoid of any connection to the 2000 Super Bowl run.

“It may be hard to describe how we are,” Jim Fassel said. “I don’t think we’re overconfident but I don’t think we lack confidence. We’re somewhere in between.”

Coming off back-to-back losses to the Vikings and Raiders prior to their bye week, the Giants are on the wrong end of a playoff muddle that includes as many as six teams trying to squeeze into the sixth and last NFC wild-card spot. Up next are the Cowboys, followed by home games with the Cardinals and Seahawks, so there are no beasts in the immediate future. Of course, any opponent can rightfully believe the Giants, with an offense that can’t find the end zone and a defense that gives up big plays galore, are ripe for the picking.

“We put ourselves in this situation, we cheated ourselves by playing so poorly early on,” Michael Strahan said. “You can’t feel sorry for what you put yourself into. We can take a step every week, and that’s the goal. Take the right step.”

Strahan had previously said he’d label the Giants as underachievers if they fail to make the playoffs. None of the Giants would argue that point. GM Ernie Accorsi said, “I’m not going to put a label on it because I don’t want to live with the label.”

In lieu of a label, Accorsi did offer a front-office perspective on how a playoff-less season would be viewed one year after a Super Bowl. “I don’t think anybody in this organization is going to be very pleased,” he said. “It would be an insult to the fans if you tried to put any silver lining on it.”

The task of beating the spirited-but-weak Cowboys, with Quincy Carter the quarterback du jour, is not daunting, but the Giants have won just two of their last six games and one of them was a 27-24 overtime escape-job on the Cowboys at Giants Stadium, as the Giants staged their biggest comeback in 15 years by recovering from a 24-7 halftime deficit.

“We’ve won the last few from them but we’ve had to fight for every game,” Fassel said.